'Sniff' Your Life Away

Yesterday.

In the sweltering
pre-monsoon heat
walking out of
a mall
I watched
three young boys
barely ten
prancing around two girls
for their creamy vanilla cones
which they held high
in refusal, to give in,
to let them win, their battle with hunger.

I saw
a child
brain fucked
after the sly passage
of a small, black and white
bottle.

I wondered,
what is he sniffing a rope for?
is he mad?
sniff
does he need help?
sniff
is he so fucked in the head
that he is inhaling fumes from a rope?

No!

It was another juvenile junkie,
brain washed
with dirty dust ridden hair
eyes full of manufactured paranoia
chapped lips, love lost
hunger free

and his mind
withering
sniff by sniff, away.